Big building on campus

Dec 01, 2006

When designing University Hall at Montclair State University, Montclair, N.J., the architect was challenged to plan the university's largest building it its distinctive Spanish Mission style, while maintaining a sense of the building's size and scalability in relation to the rest of campus. The building site, which once had been a rock quarry, posed an additional challenge. Much of the underlying soil had to be removed and replaced with soil that could withstand the structure's weight. The construction timetable was three years.

The 272,000-square-foot, $54 million building is the largest and most sophisticated building in the university's history. It has many instructional spaces, including one 200-seat and six 100-seat lecture halls, 39 general classrooms, 11 specialized classrooms and laboratories, and a number of student study lounges and gathering spaces, including an outdoor courtyard.

The south wing of University Hall provides a new home for the College of Education & Human Services. Two floors of the north wing contain the IT division and house the Information Commons and the Technology Solutions Center.

Situated on the seventh and top floors are a conference center and banquet facility with meeting, conference and event space for groups of up to 500 people.

The architect for this project is S/L/A/M Collaborative (Atlanta, Boston, Connecticut).